Turkey: an emerging hub of globalization and internationalist humanitarian actor?

In an era of global turmoil generating significant challenges to global security and requiring global solutions, humanitarian intervention, and assistance become central concerns at the intersection of globalization studies and international relations. In this context, Turkey is emerging as a more proactive and autonomous actor in foreign policy and as a regional and global force in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, making the country one of the key actors of world politics. In this article, we demonstrate Turkey's contributions to global security through its increasing involvement in humanitarian assistance in different regions of the world, and suggest that in doing so Turkey is not only contributing to global security but also creating new norms of democratic global governance that bridge several seemingly contradictory formations: European integration and Islamic solidarity; global South ascendance and NATO stabilization; Ottoman nostalgia and internationalist modernism. But the primary focus will be Turkish protagonism in peacekeeping interventions in Afghanistan to demonstrate the multilateral manner through which humanitarian assistance norms are implemented

Favoring co-partisan controlled areas in central government distributive programs: the role of local party organizations

We analyze the non-contributory health insurance program (“green cards”) in Turkey with RDD (Regression Discontinuity Design) and show that more citizens receive green cards in municipalities controlled by the national incumbent party, AKP (Adalalet ve Kalkınma Partisi). Our explanation for the finding emphasizes the role of local party organizations and sub-national incumbency. Local government control provides additional resources to the party to strengthen its organization, which then helps the party to target the beneficiaries of central government programs like green cards more effectively. Theoretically, we join the literature that uncovers the significance of incorporating local actors into the analysis of central government programs. Our contribution lies in depicting the mediating role of political parties and their local organizations. Even in a highly centralized context like Turkey, parties’ informal role affects program implementation. Unequal access to free healthcare results from the asymmetry between national and opposition parties in how their local organizations interact with the central government

Democratization in Conflict Research: How Conceptualization Affects Operationalization and Testing Outcomes

Using the debate over democratization and conflict, we demonstrate how the connection between conceptualization and operationalization can play a decisive role in testing falsifiable hypotheses. We discuss seven different operationalizations of regime change based on three different conceptualizations of democracy. Although we find high correlations between different measures of democracy, when they are used to capture regime change, the correlations drop precipitously. In multivariate estimations of the effect of regime change on a range of conflict variables, we generate widely disparate results, providing no consistent support that democratization affects conflict. We thus demonstrate that decisions about conceptualization and subsequent operationalization have decisive impact on the inference we produce. In contrast, our controls for the effect of institutionalized democracy consistently show a negative relationship between joint democracy and conflict. Finally, autocratic regime change seems to be more robustly correlated with a range of conflict behaviors than heretofore recognized in this literature

Democratization in Conflict Research: How Conceptualization affects Operationalization and Testing Outcomes

Using the debate over democratization and conflict, we demonstrate how the connection between conceptualization and operationalization can play a decisive role in the testing of falsifiable hypotheses. We discuss seven different operationalizations of regime change based on three different conceptualizations of democracy. Although we find high correlations between different measures of democracy, when they are used to capture regime change the correlations drop precipitously. In multivariate estimations of the effect of regime change on a range of conflict variables, we generate widely disparate results, providing no consistent support that democratization affects conflict. We thus demonstrate that decisions about conceptualization and subsequent operationalization have decisive impact on the inference we produce. In contrast, our controls for the effect of institutionalized democracy consistently show a negative relationship between joint democracy and conflict. Finally, autocratic regime change seems to be more robustly correlated with a range of conflict behaviors than heretofore recognized in this literature

Replication Data for: Democratization in Conflict Research: How Conceptualization affects Operationalization and Testing Outcomes

Replication Data for: Bernhard, Michael, Ömer Faruk Örsün and Reşat Bayer. Forthcoming. “Democratization in Conflict Research: How Conceptualization affects Operationalization and Testing Outcomes” International Interactions

Signaling in Small Subcellular Volumes. I. Stochastic and Diffusion Effects on Individual Pathways

Many cellular signaling events occur in small subcellular volumes and involve low-abundance molecular species. This context introduces two major differences from mass-action analyses of nondiffusive signaling. First, reactions involving small numbers of molecules occur in a probabilistic manner which introduces scatter in chemical activities. Second, the timescale of diffusion of molecules between subcellular compartments and the rest of the cell is comparable to the timescale of many chemical reactions, altering the dynamics and outcomes of signaling reactions. This study examines both these effects on information flow through four protein kinase regulatory pathways. The analysis uses Monte Carlo simulations in a subcellular volume diffusively coupled to a bulk cellular volume. Diffusion constants and the volume of the subcellular compartment are systematically varied to account for a range of cellular conditions. Each pathway is characterized in terms of the probabilistic scatter in active kinase levels as a measure of “noise” on the pathway output. Under the conditions reported here, most signaling outcomes in a volume below one femtoliter are severely degraded. Diffusion and subcellular compartmentalization influence the signaling chemistry to give a diversity of signaling outcomes. These outcomes may include washout of the signal, reinforcement of signals, and conversion of steady responses to transients

Bargaining, Nuclear Proliferation, and Interstate Disputes

Contrasting claims about the consequences of nuclear weapons rely on different interpretations about how leaders respond to risk, uncertainty, and the balance of power. Nuclear optimists use deterrence theory to argue that proliferation can promote stability and inhibit the use of force. Pessimists argue that proliferation precipitates nuclear hubris, accident, or anger that heightens the risk of war. It is also possible that nuclear weapons have no net effect on dispute propensity. Since states fashion their own bargains, nuclear status is bound to influence the distribution of influence. Proliferation also reflects existing tensions, biasing upward the apparent impact of nuclear weapons on conventional conflict. Instrumenting for the decision to proliferate, the authors find that nuclear weapons increase diplomatic status without much affecting whether states fight